Posts filed in Panavision

In my newest interview for Filmmaker Magazine, Panavision Senior Vice President of Optical Engineering Dan Sasaki talks being a second-generation member of the Panavision family, the storied history of the C Series anamorphics, and personalizing lenses for cinematographer Robert Richardson for use on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.

Here’s an excerpt:

Filmmaker: Do you have a favorite set of lenses that you wish got rented out more?Sasaki: Oddly enough, I cannot say that I have encountered a situation in which any particular series has gone unnoticed or underutilized. The amount of content [being made now] has created a bit of a renaissance in which the art of cinematography has evolved into an adventure that I have not seen the likes of in my history at Panavision. Cinematographers are figuring out ways to maintain their authorship and carry their intent throughout the entire imaging chain. That includes experimenting with every type of lens we carry.

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“The first thing I try to communicate to my crew is that there will be no shaky-cam and no rack zooms, because those techniques are only used to hide the fact that there is no energy. When you eliminate those gimmicks you’re confronted with the reality of the shot you have in front of you, and nine times out of 10 you say to yourself: “This just isn’t working.” Then you have to find ways of infusing the shot with energy and excitement, and ask yourself what you can do to sustain the shot so that you’re not relying on staccato editing.” Mission:Impossible – Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie states his principles of action cinema in an interview with Film Comment.

As he’s morphed from movie star to aging action hero, Tom Cruise has become more Evel Knievel than thespian. After five Mission:Impossible outings, I can tell you virtually nothing about Cruise’s super spy character Ethan Hunt. He’s a cipher whose personality shifts from film to film, retaining only a very Cruise-like intensity.

Cruise’s latest act of daredevildry involves hanging off the side of an Airbus A400M military plane as it takes off. Any doubt that Cruise himself is the man clinging to that plane should be alleviated by the photo above, which (on the left) shows an airborne Cruise harnessed with safety cables. To the right is the final color corrected image, with the cables painted out in post.

The film was shot largely with Panavision Millennium XL2 35mm film cameras and Panavision C Series anamorphic lenses. The Arri Alexa 65 was employed for an extended underwater set piece. Continue Reading ›

Director Wally Pfister on the set of Transcendence, which opens nationwide this weekend. The sci-fi flick marks Pfister’s directorial debut after a distinguished career as a cinematographer that included The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and Moneyball.